Pater Potter

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon is entitled Pater Potter (Father Potter), and my focus is Isaiah (64:1-9). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

I get to spend time watching the interaction of my stepson and his children. When Matt was a teenager, he was a decent athlete. Naturally the activities in which my grandchildren are athletics. My granddaughter plays soccer, and my grandson plays baseball. When we attend the games, Matt does the fatherly thing, that is, he yells instructions to them, even though he is not the coach.

I mention this because, like the Potter in Isaiah, well-intentioned fathers try to mold their sons and daughters into, well, themselves. I have never been a biological father to my own children, but I have experience working with all kinds of fathers: absent fathers, successful business fathers, stay-at-home dads, disciplinary dads and so on. I pastored in churches that had preschools and primary schools, and served as chaplain to students in colleges. I even worked at an early children’s education center founded by Dr. Benjamin Spock who hired a young man named Fred Rogers.

All of this to point out that the Prophet Isaiah calls God “Father” not only in our passage today, but also in chapter 63:16, “For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.”

This is Isaiah’s prayer for mercy from our Heavenly Father. Why? Why is Isaiah pleading with God to be merciful when he says, “O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.” (64:8-9)? What’s going on in the southern Kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem?

I’ll tell you what’s going on – prosperity. Isaiah’s ministry began about 742 BC, the year King Uzziah died, and continued until sometime during the reign of Hezekiah (715-687). The time before the death of Uzziah had been one of great development and prosperity for both the northern kingdom (Israel) and the southern kingdom (Judah), especially since the power of Assyria (Iraq, Iran, Kuwait) had declined. During the reign of Uzziah there were victories over the Philistines, Arabs, Ammonites, and Edomites. Uzziah promoted agriculture and industry, and fortified Jerusalem. In the north, another forceful king, Jeroboam II, restored the boundaries of Israel. Prosperity and wealth were everywhere. So, why would Isaiah plea for mercy with an Almighty God when both the northern and southern kingdoms enjoyed power and prosperity that they had not known since the division of the kingdom? In a word – corruption.

Power and prosperity come and go. Young men who become kings and presidents make mistakes, get overthrown, grow old and die. New men rise to power. The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were not secular like the United States, China or Russia, they were theocratic or religious kingdoms; and in many ways Uzziah seemed to have been religious, but he did not remove the high places devoted to pagan gods. At the height of his power, he became proud, attempted to offer sacrifice in the temple, even though the high priest warned him against it. When he did attempt to offer sacrifice, he was stricken with leprosy and a devastating earthquake came at the precise moment of his sin against the priests. This ended his public exercise of kingship (cf. 2 Kings 15:5). Yet, the prosperity of Judah during his reign was greater than that of any period since Solomon.

During this period of time God revealed His plan to Amos and Hosea who told the people of impending dangers and called them to repentance and faith. God then revealed these dangers to Isaiah, but many of his contemporaries mocked his predictions. Isaiah saw not only the international situation, but also the sins of his people, which would lead to divine judgment and punishment. Yet, Isaiah also foresaw a kingdom restored by a God who loves His people like a father loves his children and offers them mercy.

In today’s passage, Isaiah opens his speech with an “if only” statement. We have all spoken that phrase. If only I was given a chance … If only if I studied more … If only I bought that stock when it was initially offered … In this case, Isaiah knew that if only the Lord made His presence known, that would have been enough to change everything. If the enemies of the Lord – foreign and domestic – knew who and what kind of God Isaiah knew, they would show respect and be subject to irresistible change.

Isaiah understood that it would be easy for a God as mighty as Israel’s to show his face and make all things right, but in a poetic style, Isaiah asks, “Why should such a God intervene for people such as these – such as us?” If Isaiah’s Lord is the One we expect to help us, we need to know what He is like. Here is what he is like. First, God acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. You don’t get to throw up a quick prayer and expect a miracle so that you can return to your normal lifestyle. God is merciful, but not manipulated. Second, God comes to the help of those who gladly do right. If we know God in our hearts and minds, but grumble about doing His will or worse, don’t even care about God’s will as we go about our day, why should we expect God to help us? Finally, Isaiah’s God acts for and helps those who conform their lives to the pattern of God, that is, those who devote themselves to God. To the world, faithfulness to God’s will seems foolish, but God “changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding” (Dan 2:21).

You know how upset ardent Steelers fans get when some player on the opposing team desecrates the Terrible Towel. It’s a flagrant offense to Myron Cope and all the work he did to help people with disabilities. Well, here Isaiah exposes the aggravated offense – that we sinned knowing full well that it would enrage God – which people waved in God’s face. He asks them, “Should we really expect that God would intervene for people such as us? Have we devoted ourselves to God?”

Isaiah knew if the Lord would have shown His face, nations would tremble; people would repent and conform, but the reality is that we – myself included – are fading like fallen leaves and melting like Margaret Hamilton because God is not showing, but hiding His face.

Throughout these past months, we have been reviewing the Small Catechism, and recently finished the Ten Commandments. We are now studying the Apostles’ Creed. In the First Article of the Creed, we say, “I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.” Martin Luther set up the Small Catechism so that we would first understand the Ten Commandments because this is how God wants us to live, and then the Creed because this is how God wants us to believe. In other words, the Commandments naturally flow into the Creed.

(In his Large Catechism) Luther wrote, “if we could by our own powers keep the Ten Commandments as they are to be kept, we would need nothing further, neither the Creed nor the Lord’s Prayer.”[1] He then wrote that the first sentence in the Creed “sets forth most briefly what is the essence, will, activity, and work of God the Father. For since the Ten Commandments have taught that we are to have not more than one God, the question might be asked, What kind of a person is God? What does He do? How can we praise, or portray and describe Him, that He may be known? Now, that is taught in this and in the following article, so that the Creed is nothing else than the answer and confession of Christians arranged with respect to the First Commandment.”[2]

In other words, if you had to answer who God is, you should say that God is our Father and Creator of heaven and earth, and all things visible and invisible. From this, you should agree with Martin Luther’s next statement: “This is what I mean and believe, that I am a creature of God; that is, that He has given and constantly preserves to me my body, soul, and life, members great and small, all my senses, reason, and understanding, and so on, food and drink, clothing and support, wife and children, domestics, house and home, etc.”[3]

So that we do not gloss over that essential teaching, let me repeat it. I am a creature of God. I am a creature. God my Father created me. Created me for what sole purpose? To know, love and serve him. I know God. I love God. I serve God. Beyond that, nothing else matters.

Yet, as Luther writes, God the Creator, “causes all creatures to serve for the uses and necessities of life: sun, moon, and stars in the firmament, day and night, air, fire, water, earth, and whatever it bears and produces, birds and fishes beasts, grain, and all kinds of produce, and whatever else there is of bodily and temporal goods, good government, peace, security. Thus, we learn from this article that none of us has of himself, nor can preserve, his life nor anything [else] … however small and unimportant … it might be, for all is comprehended in the word Creator.”[4]

God created the earth to serve our needs. We don’t worship the earth or any created thing. We worship our Creator. Plants and all animals serve our needs. Every form of government serves us. When government stops serving us, it is no different than Communist China, which places government and country above people and religion. So, while some may think that Sunday worship of our Triune God may be passé, or keeping the Ten Commandments can be subjective, or the Creed can be changed, I disagree because first and foremost, I am a creature of God, here to know, love and serve my Father.

The people of Isaiah’s time abandoned the Commandments, particularly the First. Kings and queens set up altars to wooden and stone figures to whom they prayed for peace, prosperity, fruitful crops and unblemished animals. Even while God was delivering the people through the Exodus, they rebelled and chose to worship a golden calf over a gracious deliverer. The Father’s love, care and concern treated as worthless.

In many ways, throughout the history of the Church, we find apostasy. We abandon our faith in the Father for something else. You can run through a list of ideas that we value more than seeing our Father God as Creator and ourselves as creatures made to know, love and serve Him. In short, we set up ourselves as God. We become like Lucifer in that we think our ideas or someone else’s are superior to God’s will and purpose for us – to know, love and serve Him alone. We lack humility and become proud … before we fall headlong into the dust from which we were formed. And yet, throughout the history of the Church, and in our midst today, there are men and women who rise to the occasion and restore our faith: Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther, John Wesley, Mother Teresa. They remind us not only to give intellectual assent to God’s Commandments, God’s ways, but to live in accord with them.

Sin is the primary offense not only to God, but also to life itself. There is nothing we can do to overcome sin. As believers, we are not simply to give up and give in, but we call on his name. Through His own grace, we call to Him like lepers, like crippled humans, like the blind and the deaf, like poor beggars sitting in the gutters and along the roadside. We call out, “Father.” And when God asks what we want, with the words of Isaiah, we say, “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand” (64:8).

Friends, Advent is not simply a season anticipating the birth of Jesus Christ. Advent is when we focus on Christ coming to us so that He can finish His work and restore our malleable mortal bodies and minds, hearts and souls into the beautiful people His Father originally created. For the next few weeks, take time to celebrate. Celebrate Christ’s coming as a child. Be in awe of his form, his shape, his innocence as a child. Allow Jesus to work a miracle in your life as he did for every sinner who sought him. Celebrate Christmas by feeling God’s love for you, and allow the Holy Spirit to finally shape you into the person God called you to be when He created you in His image. And then, thank the Lord and sing His praise; tell everyone what He has done. (see Mk 5:19-20). Rejoice and proudly bear His name. When you do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, A Reader’s Edition of the Book of Concord. Trans. By William H.T. Dau and Gerhard F. Bente. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (2005), p. 425. See also www.bookofconcord.org/large-catechism/apostles-creed/.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid., p. 426.

[4] Ibid.